3 objective driven social media campaigns by television channels

Social Samosa takes a look at how television channels have been using social media, reaching out to newer audiences, create buzz around their content and more. Take a look at these television channels social media campaigns

Television channels today have grown more focussed on social media as a means to marketing owing to multiple reasons. Data has time and again proved television viewers to be active on social media while consuming content on what once used to be the dominating screen. Secondly, the stakes and investments on television content being much higher, channels leave no stone unturned to reach out to newer audiences through digital channels.

“The objective for TV channel should be to channelize this heavy intent to express into something beneficial for the brand. Basically use the intense need to express to drive positive sentiment and building association,” said Harikrishnan Pillai, Founder, TheSmallBigIdea.

Creating a digital IP

A dedicated movie channel to Bollywood classics, Sony Max2 initiated the season 3 of Max2 Timeless Digital Awards with the aim of establishing a digital IP by reaching out to relevant audience through relatable content from the classics released in 1950s and 60s.

The idea was to leverage the popularity enjoyed by these movies through references among movie goes even today.

“The objective was to build a bigger, larger and more engaging season of awards. And the challenge was doubly difficult because the awards were from an era where most of digital audiences are either clueless or uninterested,” shared Chetan Asher, CEO, Tonic Worldwide.

The campaign was initiated through buzz around Bollywood classics through creatives from iconic movies with #IndiaKiShaan. Followed by this, Sony Max2 launched their microsite featuring various categories and nominees.

Your vote is our command! Here are the final nominees of Sadabahar Star which you have chosen. Are you ready to make your 'Sadabahar Star' win? #SadabaharStar #MAX2TimelessAwardsS3 #IndiaKiShaan pic.twitter.com/bWrQ7rLjQm

— Sony MAX2 (@sonymax2movies) March 19, 2018

To support the activities going on the microsite, the movie channel initiated an influencer outreach campaign, through which various fashion bloggers re-created celebrated and most loved looks of those decades, including polka dots and winged liner.

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“Insights from social media have helped us identify relevant content pegs to engage with our audience. Contemporizing the content to make it relatable helped the brand to make the era of 50s and 60s popular with the audience and garner maximum participation,” said Vaishali Sharma, Senior Vice President Marketing and Communication, Sony Max2.

Through the integrated campaign, Sony Max2 earned nearly half million votes for Timeless Digital Awards from over 1.30 lac users. The campaign earned a reach of over 4.8 million with 9.9 million impressions.

Confused on who to vote for between Mehmood & Johny Walker for best Comic Artist, Who's your pick Tweeps? Decide & Vote here! #MAX2TimelessAwardsS3 @sonymax2movies https://t.co/3UpvsdMlhf

— Prabhu ? ‏ (@Cricprabhu) March 19, 2018

Time to relive the Golden Era of Hindi Cinema with #MAX2TimelessAwardsS3 now kyunki yeh hai #IndiaKiShaan! I have voted for for my favourite stars. You should vote for yours here - https://t.co/TnzcBx8zKi

— Jatin Israni ?? (@JatinKiDuniya) March 19, 2018

The Television Premiere game

Television premieres of blockbuster films form a crucial part of every movie channel’s content play. With increasing rate of rights acquisition, movie channels are pressured to attract more eyeballs for advertisers, to maximize the RoI.

To create buzz around the world television premiere of Padman featuring Akshay Kumar, the channel initiated #Padathon. With the aim to empower the common man and with the mission to create more pad men, Zee Cinema announced that every post or tweet using the #Padathon and tagging Zee Cinema, the channel shall contribute Rs.10/- towards the cause of aiding menstrual hygiene. All the money raised through this campaign will be donated to an NGO which provides low-cost sanitary pads to needy women. Akshay Kumar kick-started the campaign which went on to attract quite a few celebrities.

How to demand for development when we can't make a breakthrough in our soch? @zeecinema's latest initiative is all about this where u can tweet using #Padathon tagging @zeecinema & they will donate Rs.10 on every tweet of urs to the cause of women’s menstrual hygiene. Be a PADMAN pic.twitter.com/DRseDAbunl

— Radhika Apte (@radhika_apte) May 10, 2018

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Enhancing reach

To leverage the increasing popularity of Instagram, &Pictures initiated a campaign focussed on quality engagement. &Charades, like the name suggests was their version of the game dumb charades where the users had to guess the name of the movie enacted in the video.

The videos were enacted by influencers, for enhancing the reach of the brand, through the campaign to newer audiences.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb0_KYFBQwL/?utm_source=ig_embed

&Pictures received more than 30.8K Views with a Total Reach of 32.5K on the 50 videos created and shared by them.

Going forward, social media shall play an even integral role in the social media plans for television channels.

“Social Programming, like we call it as TSBI is the next big trend in this space,” said Pillai. “Like how a TV channel programs its prime time schedule, the social media destination also needs to be programmed in line with platform and audience insights. It is not about replicating TV promos and PR bytes. We believe the more you get the audience closer to the actor and get them to see things that they don’t get to experience otherwise, the more the content is likely to work. Creating ancillary content, keeping the profile of a digital-first audience and medium is the way to go.”